Madalitso Mtukula
The Lilongwe Principal Resident Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a 38-year-old man, Grant Mpasu, to 18 months imprisonment with hard labour for stealing copper oxygen cables worth K2.8 million from Bwaila District Hospital.
Mpasu was arrested in March this year after hospital authorities caught him vandalizing and stealing copper cables from the ceiling. The cables were part of the hospital’s oxygen supply system, and their removal led to critical equipment failure in the labour ward's operating theatre.
The damage further affected the kangaroo (nursery) section of the hospital, where oxygen concentrators and other medical devices stopped functioning. As a result, seven premature babies died before the hospital could restore the system using alternative means.
In court, Mpasu pleaded not guilty to the charge of theft, forcing the State to parade five witnesses to secure a conviction. Sub Inspector Leonard Chabwera from Lilongwe Police Station led the prosecution.
During mitigation, Mpasu asked for leniency, saying he was a first-time offender, the sole breadwinner for his family, and caretaker of his grandmother. However, Prosecutor Chabwera argued for a stiff sentence, stressing the value of the stolen property and the severe impact on patients.
In delivering his judgment, Principal Resident Magistrate Benjamin Chulu agreed with the prosecution and sentenced Mpasu to one and a half years in prison with hard labour. Mpasu comes from Kambewa Village, Traditional Authority Ganya, in Ntcheu District.
إرسال تعليق